Sunday, January 31, 2016

"The emperor has no clothes: The West Bank, settlements and the two State Solution" It is clear that the current plan is to play up the settlements as the only real problem (and this strategy goes way back to the concentration camp guard), annex the big settlement blocks and make a big deal of abandoning the 'hilltop youth' (without, of course, actually abandoning the covert settlement expansion and harassment of Palestinians), give up some useless land as part of the 'swap', and declare the matter settled, removing the need for BDS and product labeling and deligitimization of Israel proper. That is why BDS has been carefully crafted to point only at the settlements. Nothing will actually change - the settlement process will continue, and Israel still won't fix its borders - but corrupt politicians can be paid off to declare that Israel is again kosher. This is just another aspect of the time-buying strategy of Zionism.

"New Atheism, Worse Than You Think" "How the Humanist Movement Fosters Economic Injustice". (Unfortunately, this is tl;dr territory, and could use severe editing). I'm always astonished, but using atheism of all things as a cover for extreme right-wing hate - and in particular, a front for Islamophobia I guess on the basis that we somehow won't notice they have a problem with only one religion, and a caricature of one religion at that - is a particularly unexpected move. New Atheism also fits nicely into glibertarianism. New Atheism is obviously self-contradictory, and arbitrary in its fascinations, odd for a 'philosophy' of supposedly educated and smart people. The 'movement' - of perhaps a couple dozen people with privileged access to the media and publishing outlets - is largely branding, with the glibertarians realizing that organized religion has been completely discredited for many very good reasons, and so hopping on the bandwagon to sell a different kind of shit.

"The Greatest Murderer in History" Margolis returns to form. This is hate speech as Hitler doesn't get his due.

"Michael Moore: 10 Things They Won’t Tell You About the Flint Water Tragedy, But I Will" There used to be legal and ethical and reputation reasons why politicians and bureaucrats wouldn't take this kind of huge risk with human lives, but the costs of fighting all those Wars For The Jews means that the necessity of cost-cutting trumps all, with the main job of the politicians to cover up the fact that the richest country in the world somehow has no money for the most basic domestic necessities. There just isn't any money for potable water. You can blame Snyder, but he is not the deep problem.

"Syria's Base Wars": "The US in this scenario is reduced to a trespasser coming up to an occupied house, unable to do anything else but leer through the window."

"Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination" (NYT). I haven't done the math, but it looks like they are getting something like 1% agreement from the comments! Her campaign is turning into a fiasco of disassociation between elite opinion and opinion of human beings.

"The emperor has no clothes: The West Bank, settlements and the two State Solution" It is clear that the current plan is to play up the settlements as the only real problem (and this strategy goes way back to the concentration camp guard), annex the big settlement blocks and make a big deal of abandoning the 'hilltop youth' (without, of course, actually abandoning the covert settlement expansion and harassment of Palestinians), give up some useless land as part of the 'swap', and declare the matter settled, removing the need for BDS and product labeling and deligitimization of Israel proper. That is why BDS has been carefully crafted to point only at the settlements. Nothing will actually change - the settlement process will continue, and Israel still won't fix its borders - but corrupt politicians can be paid off to declare that Israel is again kosher. This is just another aspect of the time-buying strategy of Zionism.

"New Atheism, Worse Than You Think" "How the Humanist Movement Fosters Economic Injustice". (Unfortunately, this is tl;dr territory, and could use severe editing). I'm always astonished, but using atheism of all things as a cover for extreme right-wing hate - and in particular, a front for Islamophobia I guess on the basis that we somehow won't notice they have a problem with only one religion, and a caricature of one religion at that - is a particularly unexpected move. New Atheism also fits nicely into glibertarianism. New Atheism is obviously self-contradictory, and arbitrary in its fascinations, odd for a 'philosophy' of supposedly educated and smart people. The 'movement' - of perhaps a couple dozen people with privileged access to the media and publishing outlets - is largely branding, with the glibertarians realizing that organized religion has been completely discredited for many very good reasons, and so hopping on the bandwagon to sell a different kind of shit.

"The Greatest Murderer in History" Margolis returns to form. This is hate speech as Hitler doesn't get his due.

"Michael Moore: 10 Things They Won’t Tell You About the Flint Water Tragedy, But I Will" There used to be legal and ethical and reputation reasons why politicians and bureaucrats wouldn't take this kind of huge risk with human lives, but the costs of fighting all those Wars For The Jews means that the necessity of cost-cutting trumps all, with the main job of the politicians to cover up the fact that the richest country in the world somehow has no money for the most basic domestic necessities. There just isn't any money for potable water. You can blame Snyder, but he is not the deep problem.

"Syria's Base Wars": "The US in this scenario is reduced to a trespasser coming up to an occupied house, unable to do anything else but leer through the window."

"Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination" (NYT). I haven't done the math, but it looks like they are getting something like 1% agreement from the comments! Her campaign is turning into a fiasco of disassociation between elite opinion and opinion of human beings.